The Las Vegas Backyard Wall Presents: Aaron Sheppard

The Vegas Backyard Wall is a local Downtown wall settled in a residential neighborhood in the shadow of the Stratosphere in Las Vegas. The wall is open to invited artists that have radical ideas for it. Each artist will paint over the previous artists work and will be documented by time lapse photography. Parties are held when the work is done to celebrate the work.

From our friends at The Vegas Backyard Wall Project:

The first party of 2014 three artist series was kicked off on a beautiful Saturday evening in March. The week prior to the closing party brought friends of the artist, the curators and simply neighbors by to watch Aaron work live. With 7 days of painting, whiskey shots, beers, and countless stories around the bonfire, the tone had been set for what would be an evening of the same intimate and instantaneously nostalgic moments.

Although the Las Vegas Backyard Wall project has been going strong for two years, the bar was raised on everything for this event. With our new partnership with Brooklyn Brewery, the crowd was able to enjoy the classic Brooklyn Lager on tap. The lager was perfectly paired with a locally raised 50 lb. pig that was beautifully seasoned and roasting in a cedar and coal covered box centrally located within the yard. As the crowd started to file into the backyard, the beautiful and tortured artwork of Aaron Sheppard set the backdrop for what would be an amazing evening of community and art inspiration. Art lovers, old friends, new friends, beer connoisseurs, foodies, bicycle riders, musicians, writers, local business owners, family, neighbors, esteemed colleagues, political figures of the community all came together to see what the always entertaining Aaron Sheppard had to show.

Donning a spontaneously hand-made shell bikini bra inspired by the artwork, Aaron was beyond excited to share his view and concept behind the 8’ x 20’ hand painted mural with his guests. As the beer flowed so did the conversations, hugs and laughs. Shortly into the party, the pig was fully cooked and ready to be chopped and served. Todd and JW meticulously carved up the tender servings of chopped pork as the crowd gathered to watch the spectacle.

The guests were entertained by two pirates that had showed up with a treasure map, leading them through the backyard. The treasure they found was a golden bucket of paint that they dug up and proceeded to paint “X”s across Aaron’s nautical sirens of the sea until it was fully covered, and would become a blank canvas for which the crowd would express their own creative minds. Paint cans and paint pens of all colors flew around, passed from person to person as guests collaborated on their own backyard wall mural. As the paint pens and cans fell to ground and the guests stepped back to admire that the work they came to enjoy was gone, a shooting star that only they got to see, friends said goodbye with anticipation for the next artist event.

As the final guests left for the evening, a few remaining contemporaries sat around the still burning fire, groggily chatting, decompressing, and taking in what was a truly organic moment in Las Vegas’ art history. The ideas and stories that were shared in those final moments and faded into the evening are those that story books romanticize about and cannot be manufactured. Only the excitement for the next artist in April can sustain our eager and art-thirsty minds.